Yesterday I got serious about making thank you cards for Rich to give to friends and family for their kindness while he was down with his hip surgery.  I started by using some Ton Stamps, and if you’ve never used them, they make terrific red rubber (and clear) stamps, but I am all about the red rubber floral backgrounds.  They are so deeply etched, and create such lovely backgrounds….I used a bunch of different images, and embossing powders to create richly colored line images.  Even if I didn’t get a perfect image (because I couldn’t tell if I had covered the entire image with embossing ink), I can still use parts of the background and make a card with just a portion of the background used…I’ll definitely be making videos to show you all the ways I’ll be using them.

Today I read a Jack Reacher series book, and then had my girlfriend Lynn’s twin grandkids over for a lesson in etiquette.  Their older sister had been in one of the etiquette classes I teach in college, and thought her fourteen year old brother and sister could use the class, as they’ve been invited to a “dinner party” for one of their friends.  They are required to wear a suit or dressy dress, and the boys are supposed to wear a dress hat.  I can’t imagine how many fourteen year olds would have the necessary clothing, but these two are all about making sure they know what they are doing, and not sticking out like sore thumbs.  I can’t imagine what they will be served at this dinner party, as the birthday boy is world travelled, and spends summers in Greece…I had my girlfriend make a very simple meal for us to practice with, and it wasn’t very successful..These twins could not be more different.  The girl would eat almost anything, and her brother would eat almost nothing.  In fact, our dinner tonight was the first time he’s ever eaten salad.  I’m not talking some kind of crazy salad, I’m talking lettuce and dressing…He’d never tried it before….Then came the soup.  He said he’ll only eat a few kinds of soups, and luckily, he would eat the chicken noodle soup that his grandmother brought, but wouldn’t eat many other varieties.  I had her make a simple chicken dish with pasta, and he ate both of those, but then when we talked about the possibilities of what main courses he might be served at this “dinner party,” he said he wouldn’t eat almost any of them.  I really hope that he talks to the birthday boy before the dinner, so he’s not surprised by what they might feed him, as he won’t eat seafood, steak, prime rib, pork, or any combinations of the above.  He says his family primarily eats chicken, and so that’s what he eats.  Apparently he doesn’t branch out much (OK, at all.)  I told him he’s going to have to eat whatever they serve him, or suffer through a bunch of questions like, “didn’t you like that?”  or “Are you feeling OK” or “Was the food OK?”  I’m concerned that if he doesn’t eat what’s being served, he’s going to offend the host, and possibly not be considered to be included in future dinners, and that would be sad.  I really hope he can power through whatever they feed him, but it wasn’t looking very promising tonight…At least they know which forks to use and maybe that will count for something.

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